Tuesday, April 26, 2016

back in november, my girlfriendkatie casually mentioned wanting to take her son arlo to disneyland. my response was something along the lines of 'oh man, that would so so much fun! i would love to take finn there someday!' to which she said something like 'well then, maybe we should go?'

after a lot of 'should we's?' and squirrelling away as much christmas and birthday money as we could, we said 'yes! lets!'

and so, we flew to california for 4 days of crazy, exhausting, insanely wonderful time together with our boys at the most magical place on earth. DISNEYLAND!!

despite katie's suggestion of packing light and bringing as little as possible to the park with us, i decided to bring my dads (very old, very heavy) canon a-1 film camera and one single roll of tri-x 400 film. i just had it in my mind that a trip to disneyland would be perfectly captured in a few black and white photographs, and although these pictures are far from perfect, i am really glad i lugged that extra 3lbs around for the duration of our trip.

thank you so much to katie for planning and planning and planning. our trip was honestly more incredible than i could have ever imagined and that was entirely because of how much time and energy she spent making sure every last detail was thought through. also, a huge thanks to her husband,bob, who miraculously made a connection that was able to make us lunch reservations at club 33- something that until the words were uttered, was never more than some elusive pipe dream with zero hope of ever becoming a reality. and lastly, thank you to our family and friends (and husbands!!) who gifted us holiday and birthday money to make this trip a reality. we could NOT have done it without all of you, and we are so fortunate and grateful to have been able to make this adventure happen.

Friday, April 22, 2016

we've dubbed this year 'the never ending birthday' for finn. he celebrated in new brunswick, he celebrated at school, he celebrate an entire weekend at home and then again with family and friends, and then he continued the celebration in disneyland. to say this kid got a lot of attention this year is a bit of an understatement.

for some reason, 6 has been a real doozy for me. each birthday that passes is always emotional, but SIX has definitely knocked me on my ass. i think part of it is that six just FEELS like the first real 'big kid' age. as much as i look at him and see this little person that will forever be my baby, the reality is he suddenly weighs 60lbs and can probably run faster than me. he's losing teeth, gaining independence, starting to read and write and come up with super creative things without us planting those initial seeds. he suddenly cares a little bit more about the image he presents to the world- some old toys are deemed 'too babyish' and certain sunglasses or shoes are suddenly 'super cool'. he doesn't want or need me like he used to, and although at the end of the day, he still snuggles in to my chest like he always has, the handholds and public kisses are gradually becoming fewer. he loves nothing more than independent play time his friends- the further out of sight and unsupervised, the better. and for the most part, we are happy to give him that freedom- gradually allowing him to learn and explore on his own, unobstructed by our visions or interpretations of what surrounds him. i can sense the days of just him and i are no longer what they used to be. summers past would have been filled with solo him and me time, but now requests to play with buddies trump most things i'm able to offer.

its both incredible and heartbreaking to watch this transformation. he is SUCH a cool person, and seeing him grow will forever be one of the greatest experiences of my lifetime. but it also reinforces just how fast life moves, and i know that is a feeling i will never get used to.

a bit about these photos- for the past few years, we have made finn a bit of a 'choose your own adventure map' to lay out what we will be doing on his birthday. this year was a bit trickier as his birthday fell on a saturday that happened to be the opening ceremonies for his baseball team and my sister was passing through town with her family, so we had already made plans to have dinner with them and ended up with a pretty crammed day.

we also weren't really sure what to get finn for a gift this year (he really didn't have anything on his wishlist and we wanted to keep it simple/inexpensive since we were going to disneyland). we ended up getting him a really basic digital camera. the idea being he would have something all his own to take pictures of whatever he felt like, and he could also bring it to disneyland with us. so far its been a pretty big hit. we continue to prompt him to use it as its not yet a regular habit, but he has really loved capturing the things going on around us.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

last month, we flew east to spend a couple weeks visiting with jeff's family. for anyone that has ventured to the east coast of canada, it is absolutely no surprise that it is one of my most favourite places in the world. our trips are never dull and always end with all of us wishing we could stay just a little bit longer.

typically on these trips, jeff and i like to venture off for a few days of exploring- hitting up gems like halifax, lawrencetown and lahave in nova scotia, or our favourite little spots in NB- sackville and st. andrews, but this trip was exclusively contained to family, friends and fredericton, which was totally perfect, but just means we need to head back for another visit soon. \

while we were there, jeff's parents and brother hosted a surprise birthday party for finn- complete withperly the magician and SO MUCH PIZZA! it was a magical day for all of us, and one finn will surely never forget.

i was totally flattered to be considered, and at the time didn't realize how meaningful that feature would actually be for me. it forced me to spend time reflecting on our home and community here in vancouver- something which until then, i hadn't really put all that much thought into doing. but with that, came the realization of just how many wonderful friendships we have been able to foster here, and how after 3 super shitty and difficult years for us personally, we can ultimately look at everything around us with a heart FULL of gratitude and happiness for the opportunities and friendships that have blessed us- that despite the hardships, what really stands out is a whole lot of wonderfulness.

thank you to bethany and the peaks and harbours gals. feel free to have a peek at my post of you are so inclined.

HELLO FRIENDS!i'm jessica. mama, bread baker, guerrilla gardener, plastic avoider, tv killer and small time blogger. here you will find little bits of our everyday adventures, a few crafts and diy projects, yummy food, and all of the things i love most in this world. thanks for stopping by! xo